Baseball America College Baseball Poll-Apr. 19

DURHAM, N.C.—Arizona State swept Pacific-10 Conference foe Southern California to run its record to an amazing 31-3 on the year and earn its way back to the No. 1 spot in the Baseball America Top 25 rankings for the second time in three weeks.

UCLA, last week’s No. 1, was the only team from last week’s top 13 to lose its weekend series, as the Bruins dropped two of three at home to Oregon and fell to No. 5 as a result. The No. 6 through No. 13 teams remained the same.

Unlike the top half of the rankings, the bottom half saw plenty of shuffling. California and Cal State Fullerton each jumped up six spots after winning weekend series and seeing six teams ahead of them in the rankings lose series. Arizona, which moved up seven spots, and Connecticut, which moved up four, also received sizeable bumps in the rankings after posting unbeaten weeks.

Four teams joined the rankings this week. Two of them are familiar names in Stanford and Vanderbilt, but as has been the case several times this year, a couple of other teams made their Top 25 debuts. Oregon, which came in at No. 18 after upsetting UCLA, entered the rankings for the first time ever in just the second year of the program’s revival. Also joining the rankings for the first time ever was Southeastern Louisiana at No. 25. The Lions, who swept a series at Mississippi State earlier in the year, joined the rankings after winning their weekend series against Southland Conference favorite Texas State.

The staff of Baseball America determines the Top 25 rankings. Records indicated are through games of April 18 and do not include ties.